Summary 2010 WY 73

Summary of Decision issued June 3, 2010

Summaries are prepared by Law Librarians and are not official statements of the Wyoming Supreme Court.

Case Name: Endris v. State

Citation: 2010 WY 73

Docket Number: S-09-0188; S-09-0189

Appeal from the District Court of Sheridan County, the Honorable John G. Fenn, Judge.

Representing Endris: Diane Lozano, Wyoming State Public Defender; Tina Kerin, Appellate Counsel; Kirk A. Morgan, Assistant Appellate Counsel.

Representing State: Bruce A. Salzburg, Wyoming Attorney General; Terry L. Armitage, Deputy Attorney General; D. Michael Pauling, Senior Assistant Attorney General; Leda M. Pojman, Senior Assistant Attorney General.

Facts/Discussion: Endris pleaded guilty to a charge of driving while under the influence of alcohol. Consistent with a plea agreement, the district court imposed a sentence that allowed him to be released from jail to participate in an alcohol treatment program. Endris was informed that during his release, he would be considered both on probation and in official detention. Endris was released but failed to enroll in the treatment program. His probation was revoked and in a separate case, he was convicted of escaping from official detention.
Endris was sentenced under the “split sentences” statute which provides that a court may impose a split sentence of incarceration followed by probation. If probation must follow incarceration, then a district court imposing a “split sentence” may not impose probation and detention at the same time. The sentence was illegal because it subjected Endris to probation and detention at the same time.

Conclusion: Endris’s sentence was illegal because it placed him on probation and in detention at the same time for the same crime. That illegal sentence could not serve as a proper basis for revoking his probation so the Court reversed that decision. In addition, the illegal sentence could not serve as a proper basis for convicting him of escape from official detention so the Court reversed that conviction. The Court vacated the illegal sentence in the underlying conviction of driving while under the influence of alcohol and remanded to the district court for resentencing.

Reversed and remanded.

J. Burke delivered the decision.

Link: http://tinyurl.com/2fnwxtj .

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